


A Rude Awakening

by orphan_account



Category: Cinderella (2015)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-02
Updated: 2017-08-22
Packaged: 2018-12-10 06:07:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11685645
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: It turns out Cinderella never got her happily ever after fairy tale because she was dreaming the whole time!!!Right??? Of course not!





	1. Chapter 1

_"Wake up, Cinderella!"_

A pair of cold hands grab ahold of her shoulders and shakes her quickly, almost violently. Ella's eyes flutter open to witness the horrific view of her stepsister, Drizella, hovering above her small cot. Both Anastasia and Lady Tremaine stand behind, silently watching. Ella rises up on her elbows and knits her brows together with a puzzled, faraway expression.

"Well! It's about time!" Lady Tremaine scoffs.

"She wasn't really asleep, Mother! She was pretending on purpose!" Anastasia chirps, accusingly.

"Was not," Ella mumbles. She closes her eyes for a split second and sees Kit's handsome, smiling face back. _Kit._ "WHERE'S KIT?" Drizella gasps and steps backwards as the pretty blonde throws her potato sack blanket off her legs and looks around inside her dreadful, cellar room.

"Kit?" Anastasia sounds confused. "Who's Kit?"

"The prince... _My_ prince..." Cinderella walks around and then glares at her stepmother. "What have you done with him, you wicked witch? Where is he?"

Both of her stepsisters gawk and stare at her as if she had grew horns on her head. Lady Tremaine's face colors a dark shade of red and seethes, " _How dare you speak to me that way!_ "

"Tell me where you kept Kit!" Ella says loud and confidently.

"Have you lost your mind?" Drizella cries. "There's no prince! There's no Kit! You were dreaming, Cinderella! It was all just a one big, stupid dream!"

"No," Ella whispers, looking crestfallen. Tears brim her eyes and she shakes her head fast. "It couldn't have been a dream! He was there! He was real! And the ball..." she grabs her left foot and feels soft flesh. She pats herself down at the dirty cloth dress she wears and feels bits of flour and bread crumbs inside her apron pockets. There's no sparkly ball gown, no glass slipper, no prince...

Lady Tremaine marches towards her and cuffs her on the side of her mouth. Ella cries out and holds onto her stinging cheek. "I'll give you a wicked witch, you wretched girl! Remember where you are, and who you are. I won't allow such tongue run in this house! Now wash up and start preparing for our morning breakfast..." picking up her gray and navy skirts, she holds her head high and leaves with the cellar door slamming shut behind her.

"She has fallen off her rocker, that one," Anastasia tells Drizella as they awkwardly make their own escape from the crying Ella.

"Pretty soon she'll end up in the loony bin for sure!" Drizella agrees and the two of them cackle away merrily.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So maybe this can be a short short story of something...

Her stepmother gave her quite a shiner. If you were there, you could see a yellowish-purple bruise alongside Ella's face. She makes no eye contact - not even a peep- as she moves around and sets each plate full of eggs, hash, sausage, and toast down in front of her stepsisters and stepmother.

"Have you fetched the milk?" Lady Tremaine questions, sitting straighter in her chair at the head of the table, flattening a napkin down below her. Her eyes narrow across to her stepdaughter as she picks her nails.

"Yes, madam," Ella says, pulling out some oranges from her fruit basket and lays one on the cutting board. She grabs the bread knife and starts to cut down the center. The fruit squirts out and hits some at Drizella.

"Oi! Mother! Cinderella just got orange juice right in my eye!" Drizella outbursts, slapping her hand over her right eye. 

Anastasia, mouth full of egg, cracks up with laughter. 

"It didn't reach that far!" Ella insists.

"Drizella, wipe your face, you're fine," Lady Tremaine instructs. "And you..." she gestures for Ella to move along. "Go back to the kitchen and make sure you pour some milk into Lucifer's bowl!"

"Yes madam," Ella scowls. She leaves the orange alone and hurries off to the kitchen.

"No dilly dallying now! You still have to bring me the morning paper!" Lady Tremaine shouts. 

Ella quickly takes the milk out from the fridge box and unscrews the metal cap of the glass bottle to pour some into Lucifer's bowl. She clicks her teeth and watches the cat skitter from the doorway of the pantry towards the milk. Ella quickly leaves him before getting scratched. She rushes to the main front door and pulls it open to meet the lovely fresh morning air and sunshine. The newspaper lies on the stone step for her and she brings it in, looking at the headliner: **New Prince Has Been Brainwashed!** Right there in black and blue ink shows a picture of Kit strapped to some kind of electrical chair. _Oh my god! There's Kit! He's real! She wasn't dreaming! She was probably brainwashed too!_

The faint annoying sound of her stepmother calling for her paper breaks away her spirit and pulls her back to reality. Ella doesn't want the others to know what she's discovered. Instead of bringing the paper over, she quickly shoves it underneath the entryway rug.


End file.
